Fighting to Survive (62 page)

The trucks were
about ten feet from the gate when Juan gave the signal. The crane
overhead dropped a small storage unit. Nerit smiled with satisfaction
as it crashed down, clipping the front end of the first truck. It
sent the hood flying and the truck jackknifing.

All
went silent below.

Juan
looked at her, holding his binoculars tight.
“
We're
winning right?

Nerit
shook her head.
“
We're
not planning to win.
”

Juan
frowned.
“
I
don't understand.
”

“
We're
going to make them fear us,
”
Nerit answered with a cold smile.
“
And
that is far more effective.
”

“
It's
the Boyds,
”
Curtis said to Nerit and Juan. He was watching the video feed from
the cameras Calhoun had rigged up on the walls. Four tiny black and
white TVs were serving as monitors.
“
Drug
smuggling, raping, murdering assholes. The whole family has been the
bane of this county for more than a century. Half of them are in
jail. Or at least they were.
”

The
three of them were hidden by a false front Juan had built. They could
see quite well, but it was hard to see them from below. Nerit was
watching the street through the scope of her sniper rifle.

With Nerit and
Katarina on watch, Juan felt a helluva lot safer.

“
I
bet they went and busted Martin out,
”
Curtis went on.
“
He
was up for murdering his ex-girlfriend and her husband. He didn't
take to her dumping him when he was in jail and marrying someone
else.
”

Juan
took a deep breath.
“
Nerit,
I don't know if I can--
”

“
You're
a strong man, Juan De La Torre. You just have never faced this sort
of situation before. I have faced similar situations. I will guide
you. You will learn. They will not respond to an old woman with an
Israeli accent, but they will listen to a strong male voice with a
good West Texas accent.
”

Juan
rubbed his face.
“
Okay,
you have a point.
”

“
What
are they doing?
”
Travis asked as he joined them.

“
Sitting
there,
”
Nerit answered.

“
Trying
to figure out what to do next?
”
Katie wondered.

“
They
came this far,
”
Nerit said.
“
They
will not want to leave empty handed. Juan, say what I say.
”
She spoke swiftly never letting her gaze leave the view below.

Juan
pressed down on the button Calhoun had showed him on the microphone.
“
Attention
trespassers. You are to leave immediately.
”

On
the small monitors set up in the
“
eagle's
nest
”
Curtis watched a man in one of the trucks flip off the fort.
“
Nice
answer. I hate these guys.
”

“
Say
this,
”
Nerit said to Juan.

He
listened then said,
“
We
know of your acts of violence against others and will not tolerate
your presence. You must leave immediately.
”

He
hesitated then ad-libbed,
“
Because
your shit doesn't fly around here.
”

Katie
laughed and Nerit smiled.

Curtis
frowned as the men inside the trucks began to talk to each other. A
few flipped off the fort again.

Calhoun
slid into the now cramped eagle's nest and began to fiddle with the
equipment he had set up.
“
If
I had more time I could have gotten the sound perfect. The equipment
I had to work with was ridiculous. Do you realize how hard it was
to-
”

Nerit
put her hand over his mouth.

Faintly,
the microphones hidden along the wall picked up the bandits' voices
shouting out insults.

Finally,
a large bald man stepped out of one of the trucks with a camper on
the back. Cupping his hands to his mouth, he shouted,
“
We're
here for food and supplies. You're the ones who attacked us.
”

“
Tell
him you want to speak to their leader,
”
Nerit said to Juan.

“
That's
bullshit,
”
Juan answered through the microphone, resorting to talking his normal
way and dropping the pretense.
“
I
want to talk to your leader.
”

“
I
am the leader,
”
the bald man answered.

“
Katarina,
”
Nerit said softly into her mouthpiece.

The man went down,
screaming, gripping his shattered knee.

Juan blinked.

“
He's
not the leader,
”
Nerit explained.

“
Oh.
”
Juan hesitated, pushed the button, and then said,
“
I
said your leader, not his girlfriend.
”

Curtis laughed at
this.

Calhoun
snorted and said,
“
Yeah,
damn aliens. They have ugly ass women.
”

There
was more discussion on the video feed. Finally, a door opened on the
opposite side of the truck, facing away from the fort, and figures
were slipped out and moved to the back the truck. At last, a tall,
almost handsome man stepped into view, dragging a girl with a gun
firmly pressed to her temple. The girl looked to be around sixteen.
Her features were badly distorted and her arms and legs were covered
in bruises and cuts.

“
Enough
of the bullshitting. We want guns, ammo and enough food to get us
through the winter, or I'm going to kill this little girl,
”
the man shouted.

“
That's
Martin. Gawddammit. They busted him out of prison. He'll do it. He'll
kill her,
”
Curtis said.

“
No,
he won't,
”
Nerit answered and said into her mouthpiece.
“
Katarina.
”

“
High
or low,
”
Katarina's voice said, small and tinny and barely heard by those
around Nerit.

“
Low,
”
Nerit said after a pause.
“
It
will be merciful. We can't save her anyway.
”

On the monitor, the
tall, gruff, charismatic man was jerking the girl about by her hair,
making a good show. Her head jerked back and blood splattered his
face. He found himself holding a very dead young woman. Her blood
dripped from his startled features. With a wordless exclamation, he
dropped her and stepped back in shock.

Curtis
jerked his head toward Nerit.
“
What
the fuck?
”

Katie
covered her face with her hands and turned away.

“
It
’
s
a better fate than the one they would have dished out,
”
Travis said in an agonized voice.

“
We
just don't kill innocent people,
”
Juan protested, then hesitated, before adding,
“
do
we?
”

Katie looked back at
the monitor to see the leader had recovered.

“
Oh,
so you'll kill someone who doesn't mean shit to you, huh? Then what
about one of your own?
”

Travis
later thought he shouldn't have been surprised when a large burly man
dragged Shane out of the back of the camper. He should have known
that Shane was too mean to die at the hands of the zombies like
Philip had. It shouldn't have been a shock that he would find a way
to the bandits. But the once arrogant sonofabitch was dressed in a
ragged dress and had makeup smeared all over his face. He looked
battered and abused with his mouth gagged and his hands tied with
rope. It bothered Travis to no end to see tear marks streaking
Shane's face.

Beside
him, Katie put her head down, and whispered,
“
Oh,
God.
”

Shane
was struggling, trying to get free. Maybe he had not told the bandits
why he was out of the fort, but it didn't matter.

“
I
got one of your boys from a patrol right here! He's a pretty thing,
don't you think?
”
Martin grinned and patted Shane's cheek.

“
What
did they do to him? What the fuck? That ain't right!
”
Curtis was horrified.

“
They're
beasts. They don't need a reason to do what they are doing,
”
Nerit answered.
“
Katarina,
”
she said into her headpiece.
“
Take
care of it.
”

Shane was
struggling, reaching toward the fort with bloodied hands, screaming
behind his gag. The big guy cuffed him hard and Shane staggered. He
fell to his knees and his head snapped back as Katarina put him down.

Travis was surprised
that he felt remorse. No one deserved what Shane had endured.

The
monitors showed that the leader was startled and a bit confused by
this turn of events.

“
This
is what you need to say now,
”
Nerit said to Juan.
“
Tell
him that we have much more to lose than he does, that we have no
problem fighting to the death. We have fought zombies and we can
fight them. Tell him that we will sacrifice our own to protect the
fort. Tell him that we have no problem with killing him or his
people. Tell him that we are relentless and cannot be intimidated.
Tell him that we have contingencies on contingencies. Tell him that
right now, my sniper can blow his fucking head off without blinking,
that she just did it to two innocent people and that right now she's
not aiming at his head, but his dick.
”

Juan
laughed.
“
I'm
gonna love saying that.
”
And he did...with his own flair, but almost verbatim to what Nerit
had said.

On the tiny black
and white monitors, they watched the leader take a step back, his
bravado completely faded away. Beneath all the grime, the arrogance,
and the wild eyes, was a man strung out on drugs and booze and living
at the edge of the abyss. For once, he was not in control and he
shifted uneasily on his feet.